Alliance for Space Development

Last updated
Alliance for Space Development
Founded2015
TypeSpace advocacy, 501(c)3 Education
FocusSettlement and development of Space
Location
  • Washington D.C, United States
Area served
Worldwide
MethodAdvocating a Citizens' Space Agenda in Washington D.C.
Members
15 organizations
Website Official website

The Alliance for Space Development is a space advocacy organization dedicated to influencing space policy towards the goal of permanent human settlements in space. [1] [2] The founding executive members of the Alliance are the National Space Society and the Space Frontier Foundation. [1] Member organizations of the Alliance are the Lifeboat Foundation, Mars Foundation, Mars Society, The Moon Society, Space Development Foundation, Space Development Steering Committee, Space For Humanity, Space Renaissance USA, Space Tourism Society, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Students on Capitol Hill, Tea Party in Space, and Waypaver Foundation. [3] The primary goals of the Alliance are to elevate the growth of the space industry, reduce the cost of accessing space, and to clearly define space settlement as the reason for sending humans to space. [4]

Contents

Objectives

The 2015 objectives of the Alliance are to amend the NASA Space Act to make the development and settlement of space a national purpose, reduce the cost of access to space, complete support for the Commercial Crew Transportation program, and ensuring a gapless transition from the International Space Station to future space stations. [4] The Alliance is also proposing a “Cheap Access to Space Act” to offer $3.5 billion in government prizes for the development of reusable launch vehicles. [5]

Activities

The Alliance participates in the March Storm, a grassroots action to lobby Congress in Washington D.C., and the August Home District Blitz. [4]

Reception

Paul Brower wrote that what was missing from the Alliance's goals is the objective of colonizing the moon. [6] In response, Al Globus, an Alliance board member, wrote that the Alliance is focused on the technological development that must precede a successful space settlement regardless of where that settlement is located. [7]

Related Research Articles

The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human Mars exploration and colonization. It was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human mission to Mars as lightweight and feasible as possible. The Mars Society aims to generate interest in the Mars program by garnering support from the public and lobbying. Many Mars Society members and former members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space colonization</span> Concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth

Space colonization is the use of outer space or celestial bodies other than Earth for permanent habitation or as extraterrestrial territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vision for Space Exploration</span> 2004 US human space exploration plan

The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was a plan for space exploration announced on January 14, 2004 by President George W. Bush. It was conceived as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and as a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private spaceflight</span> Spaceflight not paid for by a government agency

Private spaceflight is spaceflight developments that is not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of the Moon</span> Settlement on the Moon

Colonization of the Moon is a process or concept employed by some proposals for robotic or human exploitation and settlement endeavours on the Moon. Settling of the Moon is therefore a more specific concept, for which the broader concept of colonization is often used as a synonym, a use that is contested in the light of colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space advocacy</span> Advocacy for exploration and/or colonization of space

Space advocacy is supporting or advocating for a human use of outer space. Purposes advocated can reach from space exploration, or commercial use of space to even space settlement. There are many different individuals and organizations dedicated to space advocacy. They are usually active in educating the public on space related subjects, lobbying governments for increased funding in space-related activities or supporting private space activities. They also recruit members, fund projects, and provide information for their membership and interested visitors. They are sub-divided into three categories depending on their primary work: practice, advocacy, and theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Frontier Foundation</span> American space advocacy nonprofit corporation

The Space Frontier Foundation is an American space advocacy nonprofit corporation organized to promote the interests of increased involvement of the private sector, in collaboration with government, in the exploration and development of space. Its advocate members design and lead a collection of projects with goals that align to the organization's goals as described by its credo.

The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible.

Our goals include protecting the Earth’s fragile biosphere and creating a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space.

Our purpose is to unleash the power of free enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar System.

Rick Tumlinson is the co-founder of several space companies and non-profits including Deep Space Industries, Orbital Outfitters, the New Worlds Institute, and the Space Frontier Foundation. He is an active space entrepreneur and space activist. He has testified on space-related topics before the U.S. Congress six times since 1995. In 2004, Space News magazine listed Tumlinson as one of the 100 most influential people in the space industry, stating:

Part agitator, part operator, Tumlinson has spent the past two decades advocating human exploration and settlement of the solar system and has been a strong advocate of creating commercial opportunities at the Russian Mir space station and at the international space station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Exploration Alliance</span>

On June 3, 2004, thirteen United States space advocacy groups, industry associations and space policy organizations formed an umbrella organization known as the Space Exploration Alliance. The primary purpose of the SEA is to support the White House's plan to refocus NASA's human space activities toward exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA lunar outpost concepts</span> Concepts for an extended human presence on the Moon

NASA has made many concepts of moonbases for achieving a permanent presence of humans on the Moon. The American government agency requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to make another crewed mission to the Moon by 2025, followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA</span> American space and aeronautics agency

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. Established in 1958, NASA succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA currently supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, the Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars Design Reference Mission</span> Conceptual design studies for crewed missions to Mars

The NASA Mars Design Reference Mission ("DRM") refer to a series of NASA conceptual design studies of the missions to send humans to Mars. The related term, Design Reference Architecture (DRA), refers to the entire sequences of missions and supporting infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Launch System</span> NASA super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle

The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis Moon landing program, SLS is designed to launch the crewed Orion spacecraft on a trans-lunar trajectory. The first SLS launch was the uncrewed Artemis 1, which took place on 16 November 2022.

The SpaceX Mars program is a set of projects through which the aerospace company SpaceX hopes to facilitate the colonization of Mars. The company claims that this is necessary for the long-term survival of the human species and that its Mars program, including the ongoing development of the SpaceX Starship, will reduce space transportation costs, thereby making travel to Mars a more realistic possibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europa Lander</span> Proposed NASA lander for Europa

The Europa Lander is a proposed astrobiology mission concept by NASA to send a lander to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. If funded and developed as a large strategic science mission, it would be launched in 2027 to complement the studies by the Europa Clipper orbiter mission and perform analyses on site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar Gateway</span> Lunar orbital space station under development

The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is the first planned extraterrestrial space station. It will be placed in lunar orbit and is intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, and short-term habitation module for government-agency astronauts, as well as a holding area for rovers and other robots. It is a multinational collaborative project involving four of the International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is planned to be both the first space station beyond low Earth orbit and the first space station to orbit the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020s in spaceflight</span> Spaceflight-related events during the 2020s

This article documents expected notable spaceflight events during the 2020s.

Team AngelicvM is a private company based in Chile that plans to deploy a small rover on the Moon. Their rover, called Unity, is one of various rovers that will be carried by the commercial Peregrine lander manufactured by Astrobotic Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artemis program</span> NASA-led lunar exploration program

The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with six major partner agencies— the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the Australian Space Agency (ASA), (ISRO) Indian Space Research Organisation. The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The main parts of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway space station, and the commercial Human Landing Systems. The program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate the feasibility of human missions to Mars.

References

  1. 1 2 About, Alliance for Space Development, retrieved March 4, 2015
  2. Jeff Foust (March 2, 2015). "Rebooting Space Advocacy". The Space Review. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  3. "ASD Members". Alliance for Space Development. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Pura, James (February 23, 2015), Space Frontier Foundation and National Space Society Announce the Formation of the Alliance for Space Development, Space Frontier Foundation, archived from the original on March 29, 2015, retrieved March 6, 2015
  5. Jeff Foust (February 26, 2015). "New Alliance To Promote Space Development and Settlement Policies". SpaceNews . Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  6. Paul Brower (March 30, 2015). "Op-ed: Why the U.S. Gave Up on the Moon". SpaceNews. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  7. Al Globus (April 13, 2015). "Letter: Alliance Focused on Space Development, Not the Destination". SpaceNews. Retrieved June 30, 2015.